Abstract

World wide, there are various proposals for automating manual voting processes. This paper considers two different e‑voting schemes, Internet voting and direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems, explicitly focusing on risk to the integrity of the voting process. Fair elections must assure voter authentication, vote confidentiality and integrity, and the ability to audit the election. E‑voting poses special challenges. The paper analyzes security risks that may threaten e‑voting schemes and makes recommendations.

Abstract

In eight official votes between January 2003 and April 2005 authorities in Geneva invited up to 90 ,000 citizens to test a remote e‑Voting system as a complement to traditional voting methods. Multidisciplinary teams composed of legal, political, PR, security and computer science specialists, strongly supported by the Government, participated in creating the system which will be appraised by the Geneva Parliament en 2006. This paper reports on the project, its results in terms of numbers and socio‑political profile of e‑Voters, and its success factors. All three authors were directly or indirectly involved in the project from the beginning and are currently working on the deployment of Geneva's e‑ Government platform.

Abstract

The research project on which this paper is based is investigating the reasons that some English local authorities engaged in pilot projects of e‑voting and some did not. This paper offers a brief summary of the initial findings of the literature review as it identifies factors, which impact upon the decision‑making process of English local authorities. The factors identified include the local authorities' attitude to e‑voting, their consideration of the citizens' attitude to voting, the risks to the integrity of the ballot and the changing political environment instigated by central government. The analysis is based on Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory. Early results of this on‑going research suggest that in a voluntary situation where there is an over arching organisation (central government) trying to introduce an innovation to an agency organisation, Rogers' diffusion of innovations framework requires modification.

Abstract

Electronic democracy (e‑democracy) is a necessity in this era of computers and information technology. Electronic election (e‑election) is one of the most important applications of e‑democracy, because of the importance of the voters' privacy and the possibility of frauds. Electronic voting (e‑voting) is the most significant part of e‑election, which refers to the use of computers or computerised voting equipment to cast ballots in an election. Due to the rapid growth of computer technologies and advances in cryptographic techniques, e‑voting is now an applicable alternative for many non‑governmental elections. However, security demands become higher when voting takes place in the political arena. Requirement analysis is an important part of the system design process and it is impossible to develop the right system in the right way without a correct and complete set of requirements. In this manner all e‑voting studies mention e‑voting requirements somewhere, and different sets of requirements are defined. Almost all researchers state verifiability as an e‑voting requirement by narrowing the definition of verification. Unfortunately the definitions for verifiability are inadequate and unclear and it is categorised as individual verifiability and universal verifiability, where they are generally misused in the literature. Nowadays the researchers have started to discuss deeply the verification in e‑voting. However there is no obvious consensus about the definitions. Moreover, validation has not been discussed properly yet. This paper focuses on the importance of the verification and validation (V&V) in e‑voting and gives proper definitions for verifiability and validity. Then it describes some V&V activities and explains the relationship between V&V and core requirements that any e‑voting system should satisfy. This paper also states some problems for designing and developing secure e‑voting systems.

Abstract

Electronic Democracy is appearing in political agendas across countries and boarders. This paper refers to electronic participation channels implemented to digitalize decision processes in an electronic democracy. Electronic participation includes the sub processes of information acquisition and formation of an opinion. The function of efficient electronic participation in electronic democracy is crucial and indispensable. Electronic Democracy provides citizens with the opportunity to engage efficiently in democratic processes. Current technology can be perceived as an evolution of traditional communication linkages between political representatives and citizens. These can provide an "extensive library" of information and a "meeting point" for political debate. A surplus of existing technologies provides the means to enhance the unidirectional and bidirectional communication paths between citizens and involved political entities. Such a technological deployment though must meet a number of requirements ranging from usability issues to electronic security. An in depth analysis and review of social and technical requirements of such channels is provided in this paper. Solutions are presented which meet previously identified needs and through their comparison the fulfilment of the requirements will be met. This papers objective is to identify the custom design for efficient and competent electronic participation channels in electronic democracy. This goal will be achieved through a comparison of the current technological tools used in e‑participation, called e‑methods. For each one of these e‑methods a SWOT analysis will be provided, listing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, that this particular tool may have. Eventually a comparison is made after the establishment of criteria regarding many aspects such as: security, privacy, accessibility, user's or developer's viewpoints. Proficiently deployed technological infrastructures which enhance the bidirectional communication pathways will lead to engaged and better informed citizens, and evidently to a stronger democracy. Findings of this paper should be considered by parties interested in deploying electronic democracy infrastructures and fellow researchers in the field.

Abstract

Voting is regarded as one of the most effective methods for individuals to express their opinions on a given topic. Electronic voting (e‑Voting) refers to the use of computers or computerised voting equipments to cast ballots in an election. e‑Voting performed over Internet can be universally accepted in the upcoming years due to the fact that Internet plays a key role in people's lives. The DynaVote e‑Voting protocol claims that it is practical over a network since it does not use complex algorithms and has no physical assumptions such as untappable channels, whereas fulfilling core voting requirements such as privacy, accuracy, uncoercibility and individual verifiability. Software development requires a considerable amount of time and money. Therefore, in order to utilise all resources, the prototype implementation gains more importance as it gives quick feedback about the practicality of the system. This paper presents a prototype implementation of DynaVote e‑Voting protocol over the Internet. Since DynaVote relies on Pseudo‑Voter Identity (PVID) scheme, which is an unlinkable pseudo identity mechanism, the prototype includes implementation of a PVID scheme component as well. The main outcome of this study is to prove that DynaVote protocol over Internet is practical and applicable in real life and to illustrate that PVID scheme provides unlinkability. This study also contributes some improvements in DynaVote e‑ voting protocol. Furthermore, this paper analyses how the prototype fulfils some electronic voting system requirements such as efficiency, transparency and mobility.

Abstract

This paper reports on data collected from an anonymous survey on perceptions of the Australian public towards using a mobile internet e‑voting platform (N = 295). It is the first such study conducted in an Australian context by an academic institution,
which allows this research to be approached with a sense of impartiality. Our society has become rapidly fuelled by the mobilization of interactions and services. As the society becomes increasingly wirelessly connected, these mobile platforms are expecte
d to provide an untapped universal medium by which paper based elections can be complemented or even "upgraded" to digital elections. This research is the first paper in a study which will be focusing on internet e‑voting, specifically the utilisation of
mobility devices within Australia. As with any research, context shapes the direction and outcome goals. Internet e‑Voting (and research pertaining to) has gained momentum over recent years. Though there has been much research done in this field, there
was been a gap in findings when dealing with Australian and mobility context, however similarities can be drawn from these related studies. The way the Australian context differentiates itself in one instance is Compulsory Voting. Utilising the findings f
rom this initial study, we intend to provide a baseline from which our research can be further analysed and in turn will allow the derivation of hypotheses leading to creation of a user acceptance model towards utilisation of a mobile internet e‑voting pl
atform during an Australian election. Survey respondents were overall more in favour of using mobile internet e‑voting (75.25%), with more respondents requiring greater information about the technology (15.93%) rather than being against its use (8.82
%). The top appeals of the platform were towards mobility (91.40%), verifiability (72.90%) and speed (72.50%), with the top concerns towards manipulation (75.10%), retrieval (65.30%) and monitoring (63.20%) of casted votes by malicious partie
s or software. The initial hypothesis that were derived from the c

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of Business Process Re‑engineering (BPR) methods and analysis tools to address the issues arising in the implementation of electronic voting. We consider the electoral process as one which has to be re‑designed in order to effectively accommodate e‑Voting technology. We identify the key areas of e‑Voting where the use of BPR can provide beneficial results.